ClickFunnels is a software online course creators can use to both host and sell their courses.
Course creators are usually faced with the dilemma between using dedicated hosting platforms like Thinkific or ClickFunnels.
When starting out and especially if on a limited budget, there is an argument for using one platform like ClickFunnels to both host and sell your online course.
ClickFunnels has multiple templates you can easily customize to create a membership site that will host your course.
A single funnel can have your membership site as well as your marketing sales funnel.
This tutorial and review, of how to use ClickFunnels to host and sell your online course, will cover the following:
How To Create A ClickFunnels Account
It goes without saying that you will first need a ClickFunnels account.
The good news is that ClickFunnels has a free 14 day trial.
This gives you time to try out the software and appreciate how easy and user-friendly it is.
You can be marketing and selling your course before the end of your free trial.
ClickFunnels has a starter plan costing $97 per month with a limit of 20 funnels which is a great way to start.
The ClickFunnels Platinum plan costs $297 per month and comes with unlimited funnels and FunnelFlix, a library of courses and trainings dubbed the ‘Netflix for Entrepreneurs.’
If you decide to take up the Platinum plan, then Funnel Builder Secrets is a special offer many people are unaware of.
With Funnel Builder Secrets, you get 6 and 12 months of ClickFunnels Platinum at a discount plus additional training bonuses and Funnel Scripts, a software that will help automate your copywriting.
You can start your ClickFunnels free trial here.
I have some bonuses when you sign up through my affiliate link.
How To Create Membership Site In ClickFunnels
The membership site in ClickFunnels will host your course and allow you to grant access to your subscribers.
Logging into your ClickFunnels account will bring you to the dashboard shown below.
Click on ‘Build a Funnel’ either from the direct ‘Quick Links’ bar or from the drop down menu at the top when you click on ‘Click Funnels’.
Build A Funnel
Choose A Goal
Select ‘Sell Your Product’ as your goal.
Choose Type Of Funnel
Select ‘Membership’ as your funnel type.
Name and Tag Your Funnel
Name your funnel to reflect your course.
In this example I have named it Google Ads Course.
Select ‘Marketplace’ as Group Tag.
Click on “Build Funnel.” This opens up the membership site.
Select Membership Access Template
The Membership Site in ClickFunnels essentially has 2 steps:
They are the Membership Access and Membership Area as shown below.
Membership Access is where new members will set up their accounts after purchasing your course.
Click on Membership Access, select a template from the options to the right.
I have selected the first one as an example which you can see below.
Select Membership Area Template
The next step is the Membership Area.
This is where you will add and host your course contents.
Select a template from the options on the right.
Two URL tabs will appear at the top when you select a template.
They are – Login URL and Secret Sign Up URL.
The Login URL is where members who have already set up their account can log in.
The Secret Sign Up URL is the link you will send if you wish to give someone free direct access to your course.
This distinction is very important for you to understand.
Try not to give out your secret URL indiscriminately or else you may get unauthorised access to your course.
Add Your Course Sections and Lessons
The membership area is divided into Sections under which you add your lessons.
Permissions are granted at the Section level.
That means if I have my Google ads course as a Section, all the lessons will be unlocked when someone buys the course.
So you will give access to new subscribers in Sections.
You can host a small course in one section with all your lessons.
Alternatively each section could be a module for a relatively large course.
This is useful if you are giving access to different modules over a period of time.
They will not see the modules beyond the ones you have provided permissions for.
You can add and name new Sections and Lessons as shown below.
Edit Sections and Lessons
Sections can be edited through the Restrict Access tab shown below.
This is where you restrict access to only those that bought your course.
It is a very important step to avoid anyone hacking into your course without first purchasing it.
The Open Editor tab directs you to a page to add your assets for that lesson like your videos and pdf files.
Further right is a tab to edit your lessons including adding a release date if necessary.
So that is the membership site set up.
Now we turn to selling your course with ClickFunnels.
How To Sell Your Online Course With ClickFunnels
You have created an amazing course.
It’s your dream come true!
How do you get people to buy your course?
Well ClickFunnels makes this pretty simple.
You need to create a sales funnel.
One way to go about this is to create a separate funnel from your membership site.
It is more convenient to just add the extra steps to your membership funnel as shown below .
These can then be dragged to sit above the membership site.
The basic sales funnel will have 4 steps – an optin page, a sales page, an order form page and an order confirmation page.
With experience you can customize an order form page to act as a sales page as well and just have three steps.
Optin Page
This is the landing page – the first page subscribers will land on.
Select Add New Step > Optin. Name this funnel step.
You can call ‘Optin’ for now. The same goes for ‘Path’.
They can be changed later to reflect your course name.
Next select a template.
There are several. I have selected the one shown below.
They are very easy to customize.
The sole aim of the optin page is to collect personal information details usually an email address.
A free or discounted offer could serve as a “hook” or lead magnet to be exchanged for an email address.
This is where you integrate an email autoresponder service like ActiveCampaign to build your list for email marketing.
Sales Page
The next step is to add a Sales psge.
Select Add Next Step > SALES > Sales Page.
Select a template like below.
The sales page is where you talk about your course and the price.
You can add videos, images, testimonials and whatever information about the course.
There should be a Call To Action button to buy the course which will take them to the order form page which is the next step.
The order form integrates with a payment gateway.
Order Page
Select New Step > SALES > Order Form.
Select an order form template like below and click on EDIT PAGE to customize the form.
You can for example remove phone numbers and just collect email addresses.
The yellow box at the bottom right is called an order bump form.
This is a low cost product you can add to the order form as a one time offer before your customers get to check-out.
To add an order bump form, select Elements at the top right corner and click on the order bump icon.
Add Products
The next step is to add your course with price to the Order Form.
In the Funnel Steps view, select “Products” as shown below.
Then click to “Add Products.”
The page below will open.
If you already hava a Payment gateway integrated with ClickFunnels like Stripe or Paypal select your account.
If you don’t have one this is the time to open an account from the list on ClickFunnels.
I use Stripe which seems to be the most popular.
Paypal is an alternative.
Further down the page, select the ‘one time payment’ option or if you are offering a payment plan or subscription select one of the options and save.
On the next page, you add the name of your course and the price plus currency.
Being a digital product an address is not necessary.
Include a small description that will appear on the bill.
For your main course do not select the Bump Product button.
Save the page.
The next step, which asks if you want to create a product variation is usually not selected if you are selling a course.
Save and go to the next page.
This next step is where you enable the button if you wish to send a fullfillment email when someone buys your course.
The email should contain a link to the Membership Access page to create an account and the Login URL.
You can choose not to have an email here and send one through your email service perhaps as part of an automation.
The next step is the “Follow Up Action page.”
If you select the button like below, you will have the option to add your email autoresponder service.
In this case I use ActiveCampaign.
Clicking on that opens a form where you can add them to your email list and add a tag if necesaary.
The list and tag are already present in your email service account.
Immediately someone buys your course they are added to your email list.
This could be the start of an automation where you send out a sequence of emails.
The next step will ask if this is a physical product which an online course is not.
Then follows a summary of all the stages for adding your course details as the last page.
Clicking on the ‘Return To Product List’ button above will take you back to the order form page below .
You will now find your course listed with the price.
You can edit or delete the entry and add other products or courses by going through all the steps above..
An Order Bump product should always be added last.
Order Confirmation Page
To add an Order Confirmation Page, Follow the same steps:
ADD NEW STEP > SALES > ORDER CONFIRMATION.
Click and select a template like below.
In addition to giving a confirmation of their order, you can add a link to the Membership Access page here to create their account.
Another useful feature is to have your contact details here in case they enconter any problems with the process.
Summary
So now your membership site and sales funnel are set up and also integrated with your email service.
Below is what your funnel would look like as you drag and drop the sales funnel pages in front of the membership site.
You can launch your funnel straightaway and its live to the world.
A custom domain can be added or you can use the Funnel URL as your link.
There are variations to this set up but this perhaps is the easiest to do especially for a beginner.
You can, for example, use a 2-step order form as the optin page where you offer a reasonably priced prouct.
When that purchase is made, subscribers are taken to an upsell page when you may offer your course or another product altogether.
This can be followed by another upsell which is your course.
You can also add a downsell page where people that don’t buy your course are offered a payment plan for example..
Most courses are set up in the manner shown above however.
Done For You Membership Funnel
If you wanted to get started quickly, I have a done-for-you membership funnel template.
All the relevant steps host and sell your course have been included.
All you have to do is customize the funnel with your own branding, videos and online course.
We can assist you with this as well.
Send an email to info@smartlongterminvestor.com.
A great way to generate free organic traffic to your funnel is by optimizing your social media profile.
The Course Creators Lead Machine is a 7-point blueprint that will help you transform your Facebook profile.
By linking your optimized profile to your funnel, you you can siphon off free leads from social media.
Many will buy your course upfront.
For those that do not buy immediately, you can use email marketing to build trust.
Many of these leads will subsequently buy your course.
You will also build a band of raving fans that will purchase other products from you.
The Course Creators Lead Machine Blueprint costs $7.00 and is available here.
Final Thoughts
ClickFunnels is a convenient and integrated vehicle to host and sell your online course.
It offers a credible alternative to dedicated course platforms like Thinkific and Teachable
The great thing is that anyone can set this up very quickly…
…with ZERO tech experience (I dont have any myself!).
Neither do you need coding experience (I don’t either!).
Gone are the days you have to wait months for an expensive website.
You do not need to pay for separate hosting and sales funnel software.
This is especially so when you are starting out on a tight budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Affiliate Disclaimer: I hope you like this ClickFunnels How To Host & Sell Your Online Course With ClickFunnels Review. I am an independent ClickFunnels Affiliate, not an employee. I receive referral payments from ClickFunnels. The opinions expressed here are my own and are not official statements of ClickFunnels or its parent company, Etison LLC.
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